Bansko Reviews & Ratings

Went for a 5 day trip with my partner and we loved it! Affordable skiing, great food, cheap beers. Resort was well-kept with a good range of runs from beginner to black. It’s not a huge resort, maybe 25 runs total, but the budget balances it. Queues for the gondola can get very busy so sometimes best to take a taxi up; when we went, queues for lifts themselves were very quick.

Fantastic resort and great snow for April although the lower ski road was now closed for the season.

A good place to learn to ski, but advanced skiers will find the option a bit limited. Lifts are quick when you are on the mountain, but get to the gondola early unless you want a long wait to get up there, failing that get a taxi to the top and skip the gondola queue.

Bansko in Bulgaria is cheaper than most of EU. Transfer from airport is around 3 hours. Queue for main lift can be long wait but once on the mountain it’s a great resort

Excellent town with great choice of accommodation and restaurants with fabulous food. Skiing was in my opinion similar to that of USA very wide runs, some tree lined, well maintained, good use of cannons where needed, great choice of instructors and Excellent value for money. Only downfall was the horrendous wait on a morning for the one gondola! That aside I'd visit again in a heartbeat beat.

Absolutely great experience. Me and my family had not been skiing in over 10 years due to busy lives and skiing being quite expensive!! So booking this holiday we all felt slightly nervous if we would still be capable enough and able still enjoy skiing. We had an easy arrival so went to one of the bars at the bottom of the main slope when we first arrived. The atmosphere was great with friendly staff and live dancers. On the first day we were queuing for the Gondar and got speaking to the group of people infront of us. Everyone there was so friendly! Turns out they were actually staying in the same hotel so kept meeting up with them regularly. The hotel we stayed in was a short walk from the gondola but even had an optional mini bus which would be very handy if you have children as I know how difficult it can be carrying multiple skis!

On the first day on the slopes we decided to take a tee bar to get an idea on how confident we all felt. We then decided we all felt confident enough to do a blue run. So we took a chair lift and did a few runs. We then stopped off at a bar. The bar was perfect. They had a great selection of drinks aswell as food options along with popular songs that everyone could have a dance to. We didn’t want to leave. The drinks are very affordable. The apres were great later on in the day

Overall would highly recommend coming here. We are even currently looking to book this resort again because of how much we enjoyed ourself. We got such good value for money and made memories of a lifetime

Bansko is the perfect ski resort for families and friends looking for a ski holiday on a budget. We visited earlier this year with my parents and my sister and had the best trip, we have previously skied in France and Lapland however this trip didn’t disappoint. The food and drink was lovely around the resort and we found a lovely Italian we visited most nights. Our accommodation was excellent value for money too with a swimming pool and sauna to use at the end of a hard day sking, the only downside was the breakfast at the hotel so if we were to return we would most likely opt for self catering as it’s so cheap to eat out anyway and there’s lots of options within the resort! The apres was exceptional lots of lovely bars with a good atmosphere to stop off at throughout the day, live music and a good selection of drinks too. We did find the food to be expensive on the slopes however we tended to bring some food with us to save on money. The slopes were varied and nice and quiet on the reds and blacks however the blues were very crowded and the snow was in bad condition by mid day. We all throughly enjoyed our holiday though especially for what we paid so would love to return and would recommend to others on a budget!

Great tree runs and off piste, cheap beers and fun apres although this was off the slopes. Very good value for money.

great place - local charming and very engaging, want to sell bulgaria as a destinantion but also aware of their roots.]
nice slopes gentle - was crowded in half term otherwise believed to be less so

Great few days with a mate, good young crowd for apres ski. Tough to travel to, and not the best equipped town as you may find in the alps, but cheap and cheerful.

I'd say its quite good for beginners. I remember going years ago when I was first starting out (not in school holidays) and it was great. This time I happened to take my family in the Feb school holidays and its was just a nightmare. Way too busy, gondola queue was 3hours+ then the slopes were rammed with people who couldnt board/ski. It was okay once you went onto the harder runs but for my wife and son it was their first time and you could hardly move with people flying oit of control and falling over everywhere on the blue runs. Wasn't an enjoyable experience I was avoid it during school holidays.

The city itself is great and its super cheap.

Long gondola ride from town up to the first ski lifts, can have long queues at peak times in the mornings. Weather was exceptionally warm when we were there so groomed runs quickly gutted up and turned to slush and ice in places. Good first thing in the morning. We found apres to be good and plenty of restaurants to choose from in the town. Very affordable option and I would visit again.

Very good for beginner snowboarders as it's almost all chair lifts. Very efficient lift service and very good value for money.
Great options to eat in the evening and it's got a really nice cosy feel to it as it's not a huge resort.
We are currently back and despite the lack of early snow the slopes all the way up are open and we'll groomed.
Day pass for adults cost us 29 GBP this year.

Great Ski resort if you’re looking for value for money! Decent runs, more for beginner/intermediate level or if you want to practise carving on less strap slopes. Gets very busy over half term weeks!!

Town was nice, some lovely places to eat and apres was decent too. Had one of the best kebabs of my life on the mountain but unfortunately can’t remember the name of the restaurant! Went and had a lovely evening in the Kemplinsky spa to reset too and very reasonably priced. Overall excellent if you want an easy and cheaper ski trip, you probably only want to do max 4/5 days as not the biggest area to ski, but lovely and relaxed.

As a first time winter holiday maker I didn’t know what to expect so I’d set the bar on average…. But it surpassed average on day 1. The Premier Luxury Mountain Resort was lovely, clean and very welcoming, with a great ambiance of open fire in the bar with a modern fee to it at the same time. It was about 10 minutes walk to the bottom of the ski lift and the equipment store but the hotel did have a mini bus service if you wanted. Once up the lift and took in the amazing views we were greeted by many instructors who offered classes for beginners, as this was my first time skiing we had pre booked for lessons ( about €17/person for the week). The slopes were very well kept considering it was coming to the end of the season and everyone seemed to be respectful of each other on the slopes which was I was relieved of because of my numerous falls I’d collected…

There is a lot more I could say about the place but as a beginner and first time winter holiday maker I would definitely suggest bansko as a decent place to go if you’re looking for a reasonable priced ski trip with some decent looking black courses, some nicest shops in town and restaurants to match.

Really nice resort, albeit smaller than a lot of others. Ideal location for a short stay ski holiday or for a family ski holiday due to this.
Lovely long ski road to the bottom with a pub pit stop half way down for a gorgeous sunset and pint!
Lots of bars and restaurants at the end of the ski road and on the main high street.
Unfortunately there is only 1 gondola to get to the top of the mountain so the morning queue is insanely long however, there’s plenty of taxi minibuses around and don’t cost too much when split between people.
Relatively quiet runs. 2-3 main stop off points for food and drinks with a few other little cabins around. 1 snow park. A couple of woodland runs. 1 or 2 black runs but mostly red and blues. Cheap ski hire and lift pass.
All round nice resort and area, but better suited to newbies, families or quick trips. Quite affordable compared to many other ski resorts in different countries.

Lovely resort, affordable, not much for advance riders, and not loads of runs could do the whole resort in a day, worth it for a weekend trip, if you’re with family or learning.

The biggest problem for us was the ski lift. The main gondola to get you into the skiing area had a very big queue in the morning that could take 2 hours. Once in the skiing areas the chair lifts were not a problem.
We enjoyed the apre ski bar at the bottom of the main run and the live music there. Food and drink was really good value on and off the slopes.

As with any resort, food and drink on the mountain is much more expensive. Bansko has an old town away from the tourist part and the local food is much cheaper and delicious.

Apres starts at Happy End bar and there's plenty of options to party until early morning if that's what you're looking for.

A great and relatively cheap place to go skiing. I was a beginner and was going down reds by the end of the week. Lift wasn’t too busy to get up there but we weren’t there in peak holidays